The number of Manitobans hospitalized with COVID-19 infections continues to rise at an alarming rate, reaching 517 on Jan. 14, 139 more than on Monday and 220 more than there were a week ago.
45 of those patients are in intensive care, up a dozen from last Friday.
Manitoba also reported 14 more deaths of people with COVID-19 on Thursday and Friday, taking the total since the pandemic began to 1,443.
1,215 new confirmed cases were reported on Friday in Manitoba which has a provincewide five-day test positivity rate of 42.6 per cent.
281 of the new cases Jan. 14 were in Northern Manitoba, which has more than 1,900 cases and 32 residents in hospital with the virus.
There are six northern health districts with 100 or more active cases in the north, including island Lake (476), Norway House (342), Cross Lake/Pimicikamak (257), Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake (158), Thompson Mystery Lake (151) and Bunibonibee/Oxford House/Manto Sipi/God’s River/God’s Lake (100).
There are two current outbreaks in Thompson, one at Northern Spirit Manor personal care home affecting seven staff members and another at the Thompson General Hospital obstetrics and neonatal unit, which affects five staff members and has led to reduced capacity, which may mean that some patients who would have normally given birth there will have to deliver their babies somewhere else.
Based on data from the last six weeks in Manitoba, people with two or three doses of COVID-19 vaccine, who account for about 78 per cent of all eligible Manitobans aged five and up, make up about three-quarters of confirmed active infections and 62 per cent of hospitalizations but only about a quarter of intensive care admissions and a third of COVID-linked deaths.
Overall, 85 per cent of Manitobans have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, including 51.4 per cent of children aged five to 11.
